Following remarks by military leaders that Chinese hackers have been trying to hack into Republic of China official Web sites, the government announced that it would spend NT$1.8 billion (US$612 million) to create an integrated cloud computing information security system to upgrade protection, warning, management and informing capacities of computer systems at government institutions.
The US-based information security company McAfee released a report earlier this year saying that government computer networks in many countries and global organizations — including Taiwan and the UN — have come under repeated target by hackers and that China was presumed to be behind the attacks.
National Security Bureau Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) also said during a legislative meeting that hackers usually launched attacks through a third country, adding that China was the major source of hacking activity.
The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission has listed a NT$1.8 billion budget for an integrated cloud computing information security protection system that would last from next year to 2016 to ensure a “secure and trusted digitalized government.”
Commission Deputy Minister Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said it had been more than a decade since the government began its efforts to ensure security for its information networks.
The “natural person certificate,” for example, is part of the project to beef up information security. Each government institution included in the government Internet project — more than 2,500 — has also listed budgets for network security.
The Cabinet has listed an additional NT$8.1 million budget to create a security system for government networks and the bureau has a NT$5.8 million budget for Internet security.
Speaking about the threat of Chinese hackers, Sung said that countering hacking had always been a part of the government’s Internet security efforts.
To strengthen protection, the government would not only establish an integrated cloud computing information security system, he said, but it would also allocate the tasks to different government institutions to create several layers of protection.
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